Car bomb hits police patrol in Baghdad, 5 wounded

A car bomb went off near a police patrol in western Baghdad on Wednesday and wounded five people, an Interior Ministry source said.

The attack took place shortly before sunset when a booby- trapped car parked near the intersection of Adel neighborhood exploded, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The blast damaged one of the patrol's police vehicles, wounding two policemen aboard, along with several nearby civilian cars, the source said, adding that three civilians were also wounded by the blast.

Sporadic attacks are still common in Iraq as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country just a few weeks before the March general elections.